Seventeen former sheriff’s deputies in Washington County sued the sheriff this week, accusing him of releasing their Social Security numbers and other personal information during a political dispute that led a newspaper to post the confidential material on its website.

The former employees are accusing Sheriff Donnie Smith – who is running for re-election Nov. 4 as an independent candidate against Republican challenger Barry Curtis – of invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Washington County Superior Court names only Smith and his attorney Donald Brown as defendants. It does not include the Bangor Daily News, which the lawsuit alleges got the confidential information from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. The newspaper posted the personal data online in a downloadable file April 7 before realizing the mistake and removing it two days later.

“Our clients are distraught over Smith’s release of their Social Security numbers to the public,” Steven Blackwell, a Bangor attorney who represents the 17 former deputy sheriffs, said in a written statement. “In this age of electronic communication and social networks, there has been an explosion of identity theft cases literally throughout the world in recent years. Our clients’ information is out there in cyberspace making them vulnerable, possibly for the rest of their lives, to a hoard of identity thieves. They now face the possibility of financial ruin.”

In total, the personal information of 62 former deputy sheriffs was contained in the roster file posted on the newspaper’s website. Of the 17 involved in the suit, all are retired. But two of the 17 were employed by the department when the roster was released, Blackwell said.

The political dispute at the center of the case started in March when two Republican contenders for sheriff, Dale Earle and Curtis, stepped forward to challenge Smith in the election. Smith sought to oust the men from the race by claiming they didn’t have the required five years of experience in law enforcement management. Smith had a county employee prepare personnel records to show the work history of one of his opponents as part of his petition to the Secretary of State’s Office to have the candidacies rejected, according to the lawsuit.

Brown, Smith’s attorney, filed an affidavit with the certified personnel records attached, but the Secretary of State’s Office ultimately rejected Smith’s challenge by ruling that Curtis and Earle had the required management experience to run.

Reached by phone Thursday morning, Blackwell refused to say why his clients declined to sue the Bangor Daily News, which made the confidential information available to the public.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” Blackwell said.

Anthony Ronzio, director of news and audience for the Bangor Daily News, said the deputies’ Social Security numbers and personal information were contained in public documents shared by the Secretary of State’s Office. The information was posted on the newspaper’s website for only a few days, he said.

“When we realized they contained identifying information, we deleted the documents from the website and our editorial system,” Ronzio said in an emailed statement.

Smith, reached by email Thursday afternoon, said he had not seen the lawsuit and deferred comment to the department’s attorney, Peter Marchesi.

Marchesi found it telling that the 17 former deputies chose to sue Smith and Brown for supplying the employee information to the Secretary of State’s Office, but declined to sue the Secretary of State’s Office for releasing it to the Bangor Daily News, or sue the newspaper for publishing it.

“This is not about protecting privacy, this is politics, frankly, at its worst,” Marchesi said. “That’s why they rushed to file it two weeks before the election.”

Blackwell said the timing of the lawsuit was coincidental and denied it was politically motivated. He said he was required by law to wait 120 days after notifying the county that his clients intended to sue.

“This is a multi-party litigation. We’ve got 17 clients, and we have to communicate with them at each step on the way. That’s why it’s moving more slowly than some would like,” Blackwell said.

The 17 former deputy sheriffs are Gale Tibbetts, Joseph Tibbetts, John Fuller III, Frank Gardner, Michael Crabtree, John Francis, Rodney Merritt, Jonathan Rolfe, Robert Dore, Richard Moore, Phillip Farren II, Elson Guerra, Joseph M. Barnes, Randy Perry, Steve Ramsey, Peter Walsh and John Hennessey.

They are demanding an unspecified amount of money in damages and other costs.